Puff, hysteria is getting really high :P , the govs say that there are 120 confirmed deaths, and there are some rumors that the govs are covering how many people is really dying, to avoid the mass panic... the type of rumors " my friend has a friend that works in a hospital..." are starting to fly :P

The main rumor is that people is dying is more numbers that what we are told, also, that the medical staff is dying (which probably means that the medicines are quite noneffective) ... so... everyone here is getting really scared... i post a picture of myself wearing a protective mask in the picture thread... it was mostly a joke, well, my company is buying mask and filters for all the staff... and our work is mostly done with computers.

@ rafagadeviento: Try the BBC News. They're usually a bit behind the times, particularly regarding Northern and Latin America. Usually 'behind the times' is bad, but in this case it means they have a little more time to filter out the rumours and false leads. And assume that your government is lying to you. They've been lying to us Norteamericanos about shark attacks for decades now, so...

@Ian: at what point did I say it couldn't happen here? I'll start worrying when there's a reason to worry. Right now, there ain't, not for most Americans that didn't just get back from a stay south of the border.

Yeah, this is basically the thread made for alarmist bullshit to get flung back and forth, so whatever. And yes, the situation is awful in Mexico and for all those infected. But as it is, if you aren't already included in the preceding sentence, NO REASON TO GET SCARED. It's the fucking flu. Happens every year. Entire point of the comment about who will likely die from it, and why that's not reason enough to trigger racist backlash because it's no different than any other year. And, oh yeah, how weird about the demographic of who's already been killed in Mexico. Why don't we go ahead and compare that, though, to the demographic of infected who've already died in America...? Oh, wait, no, that number doesn't exist because it hasn't happened yet. 40 confirmed cases now, still no deaths. Of course there will be, but it's not going to be nearly as bad as we've seen in Mexico. And whatever it is, in all likelihood it will still show nothing statistically significant in difference than every tally the flu takes every year.

If shit gets worse, shit gets worse. Just don't act like it's already there and already worth freaking out about. Is all I'm saying. Unless you get off on living in fear (again, possibly the point of this thread...?). I hear asteroids can hit the planet and also, sometimes planes crash. I also get in my car daily and drive on the Interstate at speeds in excess of 70 mph, and hear that can be dangerous. Every year I skip getting a flu shot but know there's a chance I could get the flu. Every year. And I also know, every year, that people that get the flu could get terribly unlucky and end up getting killed by it. Every year. And yet, I don't worry about asteroids, I love traveling by plane, I speed every single day, I even get impatient when I'm in the fast line behind someone that isn't speeding (but probably technically driving "safer" than me), and I still won't be getting a flu shot this year, unless I see compelling reason to, which I haven't yet. Despite the fact I live in a big city with a big airport in a state with confirmed cases of swine flu.

Crazy how happy I am with this sort of existence.

@mrarey: obviously 9/11 and the flu aren't comparable as motivators for violence, but, maybe, just maybe, if shit hits the fan, yeah, I can see the backlash. But that's my point, I wager it never even comes close to that.

Well, if there is a good signal that things are not really that bad, is traffic, i take me 2 hours to reach my home, as usual (#$%%&/$"%$%&$%&$% traffic), and people say that Mexico city is like "ghostown" ... i laughed a lot thinking in that, while i was circulating at 20 km per hour.

My math professor kicked anyone that she considered to be a risk out of class today, and the air was thick with the smell of antiseptic hand sanitizer. People in California are fucking crazy, and I'm staying home tomorrow.

Despite an annual budget of more than $5 billion, Mexico's health secretary said Monday that his agency hasn't had the resources to visit the families of the dead. That means doctors haven't begun treatment for the population most exposed to swine flu, and most apt to spread it. It also means medical sleuths don't know how the victims were infected — key to understanding how the epidemic began and how it can be contained.

It remained unclear where and how the epidemic began, how it has spread, who it has killed or how fast it is growing. And the government has yet to take some basic steps critical to containing any outbreak, such as quick treatment of people who had contact with the victims. In the town of Xonacatlan, just west of Mexico City, Antonia Cortes Borbolla told The Associated Press that nobody has given her medicine in the week since her husband succumbed to raging fever and weakened lungs that a lab has confirmed as swine flu. No health workers have inspected her home, asked how her husband might have contracted the illness or tested the neighbors' pigs, she said.

Not exactly the best way to handle an outbreak. I almost feel bad for Cordova.

WASHINGTON – Two million dead. Hospitals overwhelmed. Schools closed. Swaths of empty seats at baseball stadiums and houses of worship. An economic recovery snuffed out. We're nowhere close to what government planners say would be a worst-case scenario: a global flu pandemic. But government leaders at all levels, and major employers, have spent nearly four years planning for one in series of exercises.Their reports, reviewed by The Associated Press, and interviews with participants paint a grim picture of what could happen if the swine flu gets severely out of control. A full-scale pandemic — if it ever comes — could be expected to claim the lives of about 2 percent of those infected, about 2 million Americans.

I like that 2 million dead Americans (forget you foriegn godless heathens) is just one sentence from empty sporting events. Not the Yankees! NOT THE YANKEES!

And this picture to go along with it.

The US media is treating a flu outbreak like an ARG for a Zombie movie.

it's weird knowing you're in the city where the flu is most prevalent, IN the age bracket that's most vulnerable. But nothing left to do but wait, or make some hilarious youtube videos using a pork-nose as a prop and a subway station as the setting.